Author: Editor

VRU Program

RECYCLING UPDATE GOES VIRTUAL!
CELEBRATE ST. PATRICK’S DAY IN OCTOBER!

NCRA’s Recycling Update will be held on-line on Monday, October 5 and Tuesday, October 6, from 12-5pm. Two half-days. Registration is $75 for Current Members and $135 for Non-Members. Details

Join NCRA                              Register Today

Speaker Showcase – Day 1
Speaker Showcase – Day 2

Sponsors

PROGRAM

Interactive Topic Lunches, 10-Minute Presentations, Entertaining Breaks and – drum roll, Debates! The debates will be conducted by members of a local high school debate team coached by subject matter experts from both sides of the issue.

Presentations will be from innovators and experts in waste prevention, food rescue, reuse, recycling, composting and Zero Waste.  Join 300 Zero Waste professionals and advocates for networking and small group discussions of current topics.

The program (subject to change) is as follows:

MONDAY, OCTOBER 5
12:00pm Topic Lunch
1:00pm David Krueger
 Welcome
Leslie Lukacs Zero Waste Sonoma Are Compostable Products Being Composted?
Laurenteen Brazil City of El Cerrito National Sword’s Impact on the El Cerrito Recycling Center
Genevieve Abedon Clean Seas Lobbying Coalition / Ecoconsult Fighting Plastic Pollution: California Legislative Efforts
Miriam Gordon Upstream Bringing Reuse Into Food Service Through Policy and Business Innovation
2:00pm Break: Entertainment / Activity TBD
2:30pm Debate Team Head Royce High School Collecting Low Value Plastics
3:15pm Break: Entertainment / Activity TBD
Monaliza Noor HF&H Consultants SB 1383 Model Tools Overview
Wanda Redic City of Oakland Reduce and Rescue Oakland’s Surplus Food
Derek Crutchfield City of Vallejo Recycling Rewards: Recycling Incentive Contest
4-5pm+ Virtual Networking
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6
12:00pm Topic Lunch
1:00pm David Krueger
 Welcome
Wes Sullens U.S. Green Building Council Update on Recycling, Circular Economy, and Embodied Carbon in LEED v4.1
Peter Schultze-Allen EOA, Inc. What do Stormwater and Zero Waste have in Common?
Brock Hill & John Moore Premier Recycle Company / Law Office of John Douglas Moore How Franchising Impairs Recovery of C&D
Tony Hale San Francisco Estuary Institute – Aquatic Science Center Accelerating Trash Detection in the SF Bay Area using Advanced Technology
2:00pm Break: Entertainment / Activity
2:30pm Debate Team Head Royce High School Mixed Waste Processing
3:15pm Break: Entertainment / Activity
Magdalena Donoso GAIA – Latin America & the Caribbean Wastepickers: Key Agents for Zero Waste Cities
Julia Lang Downtown Streets Team I Clean the Streets, Because I’m from the Streets: How to Use Environmentalism as a Vehicle to End Homelessness
Michael Bisch Yolo Food Bank Transforming Wasted Food Recovery In A Small Rural County
4-5pm+ Virtual Networking

Zero Waste in the Time of COVID-19

By Nik Balachandran, Founder and CEO, Zabble Inc.

None of us expected the world to dramatically change within a span of a few months. Businesses, governments and people all have had to adjust to the new normal in different ways. The solid waste and recycling industry has seen its own share of changes. We have seen temporary policy changes, relaxing bag bans in grocery stores, a shift in waste volumes in commercial and residential settings and the introduction of new types of waste like PPE.

At first glance, it may seem that the amount of waste has gone down as businesses shut down during the first few months as cities and counties instituted shelter-in-place regulations. Only essential workers were allowed to continue to work at physical workplaces and the rest working from home. Commercial waste volumes did drop by up to 40% in many counties while residential and multi-family volumes increased to make up for it with more online orders.

The interesting thing to ask, perhaps, is what the per capita waste generation looks like pre-COVID and now. While the current numbers are not readily available we can look at pre-covid data. According to EPA, the average waste generated per capita in the US every day is 4.5 lbs, out of which only 35% is recycled or composted. The rest ends up in incinerators and landfills. Forty-four percent of this waste stream is made up of paper/paperboard, organics and plastics. It was pretty apparent that 5.6 million commercial buildings generated more waste annually than 136 million residential properties.

Our singular focus at Zabble is to help these organizations that operated out of commercial buildings to achieve Zero Waste. So in 2018 we developed a software paradigm to track programs that incrementally made progress (amount of waste reduction, decreased landfill waste and contamination in all streams) toward Zero Waste, because Zero Waste is as much a journey as it is a destination. We have been working with some of the largest educational institutions and corporations in helping them track and adjust their Zero Waste programs. That is, until Covid changed the landscape of waste.

Reusable and second-hand sharing practices have come to a standstill. Online shopping has almost doubled leading to increased cardboard boxes. More take-out food orders have substantially increased delivery in food containers and plastic bags. PPE litter has become the latest nuisance to plague the environment. More than 200 million masks and 1 billion gloves were ordered to be shipped by FEMA alone by June 2020. Hospitals are seeing a dramatic increase in PPE usage and disposal. “Before the pandemic, the 23 Northwell Health hospitals in New York used about 250,000 pairs of gloves a day; now, it’s 500,000 pairs”, says Chief Expense Officer Donna Drummond. One study by the American Nurses Association found that “43% of waste produced by infectious isolation procedures was attributed to personal protective equipment (PPE)”

There is a massive uptick in single-use disposables fueled by the false claim that disposables are safer than reusable options. This myth was debunked by a group of 100 experts comprising scientists, doctors, professors and epidemiologists.

So where is all this heading?

It is safe to assume the per capita generation of waste is higher now than pre-COVID. As businesses reopen the primary focus is the health and safety of its staff and customers. However, it is also a time to reflect on the new waste footprint.

    • To keep daily operations, supply chains and waste infrastructure resilient organizations must track the amount of waste, type and origin within their buildings or facilities.
    • Track unused supplies in the waste stream to excess purchasing habits and contamination to improper disposing of items (like PPE) in the right bins.
    • Use reusable options where available.
    • Constant communication with the right messaging can boost staff morale and lead to a cleaner and safer environment.

By being aware and conscious of our habits in the present, we can create a new normal that is better than the past.

For more information on Zabble, visit www.zabbleinc.com.

Here are some recently published articles from Resource Recycling and Waste 360.

 

Who is at the Table? 2020 DEI Webinar Recording

WHO IS AT THE TABLE?

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
in Waste and Recycling
August 27, 2020

Presented by: The National Recycling Coalition (NRC) and the Northern California Recycling Association (NCRA) in coordination with the NRC Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Council, the NCRA DEI Committee and the Ohio Recycling Coalition. Produced by Portia Sinnott, NCRA Vice President and Zero Waste USA Program Director.

Recording              Speaker Bios

This webinar’s objectives are to motivate the waste and recycling industry to actively explore and discuss DEI issues and initiatives, and inspire individuals and organizations to create their own mandates. We will address the issues via succinct introductory presentations with commentary, hold a robust intra-panel discussion and follow that with a lively Q&A session!

What does Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) mean in the Waste and Recycling Industry?

Are we leading the way or stumbling behind? Does anyone have a handle on the statistics? Has your business, agency or non-profit adopted DEI initiatives? Are they actively being implemented and tracked? Are the benefits clear to all involved? What factors are being addressed – age, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, ability, language and/or cultural background? Does your actual workforce reflect these commitments – in front of the house: management/decision makers, as well as the back of the house: workforce/membership? Are there efforts underway to stimulate workforce training and advancement?

PANEL

  • INITIAL SLIDES
  • Moderator and Commentator, Arley Owens, Executive Director, Ohio Recycling Coalition, former NRC Board Member, organizing member of the NRC DEI Council, and former Chair of the NRC Communications Committee and the Minorities Recycling Council
  • DEI Introduction and Industry Situational Report, Sophia Huda, Vice President, Ohio Recycling Coalition, member of the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board and Adjunct Sustainability Professor, The New School, New York SLIDES
  • Developing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mandates, Faye Christoforo, Executive Director, Post-Landfill Action Network (PLAN) SLIDES
  • Sustainable And Safe Recycling, Alina Bekkerman, NCRA Board Member and San Francisco Conservation Corps, Program Manager and
    Felisia Castañeda, NCRA Member and Recology San Francisco
    Environmental Learning Center Supervisor SLIDES
  • Moving Forward Together, Abrilla Robinson, Vice President, Ohio Recycling Coalition’s and Chair of the Ohio Recycling Coalition’s newly created Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council. Past President of the National Recycling Coalition Minorities Recycling Council and organizing member of the new NRC DEI Council.

# # #

DEI Presentation Guidelines

NCRA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Presentation Guidelines
Developed in May 2020, updated in June 2022

The following guidelines are not intended to guarantee a product or piece of information is appropriate to all audiences. Rather, we hope that this document will serve as a point of reference and stimulate careful consideration by anyone preparing a presentation.

Some of them were gleaned from the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD), Cultural Considerations: Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Presentations. The article is well worth reading as are the resources presented there.

  1. Cross Cultural: Consider how different cultures may relate to your subject.
  2. Language and Literacy: Think about your audiences preferred languages – both spoken and signed, and literacy level.
  3. Diverse Perspectives: Use case studies, scenarios, or vignettes examples that reflect diverse perspectives.
  4. Build Connections: Aim to create a presentation that supports new or renewed connections and community-building.
  5. Positive Examples: Include positive examples from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Also include examples from urban, suburban, and rural frontier populations, as well as examples from U.S. territories and 
tribal communities.
  6. Diverse Data: Where available include statistics, demographic data or trends about racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse groups as appropriate or indicate where it is not available.
  7. Diverse Images: Portray images, graphics, and visual aids that both incorporate people with disabilities and reflect the culturally and ethnically diverse groups and communities in which they live. Avoid type casting.
  8. Resource Languages: Indicate whether the resources highlighted in your presentation are available in different languages.
  9. Honor Experience and Struggles: Recognize that many sustainable practices and norms today have been practiced for many generations and the roots of the Zero-Waste movement lie in the decades long experiences and struggles of communities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).
  10. Integrity: While giving your presentation, speak with integrity, avoid assumptions and generalizations.